Recess Card

 I had the need for a speedy recovery card last week. I didn't want a  Get Well Soon card  as the recipient was not what I would call  sick,  but  recovering from an operation.  I had an idea to put the cone of shame on this dog, but I was concerned it would get flattened in an envelope and look awful  by time it got to the recipient. 

I remembered  a card I designed many years ago, that just might help solve the problem.    

A card with a recess.  Most of the cone sits in the recess.  A little of the cone  still pokes out but not enough to squash and crease the vellum.

 I neglected to photograph the making of the dog  card, so I made the base again. 

 I did change the shape and depth of the recess for this second version. 

 Changing the size, shape and depth of the recess is easy once you know how it's made. The recess on the dog card is 1/2 inch deep.  For my tutorial  the recess is 1/4 inch deep.

The stamps sets I used for this card were stampin up , Pampered pets, Grassy grove and bunch of fun.

  

So here's how I made the 5 1/2 inch   by   5  1/2  inch recess card .

...

Cut a base card  that measures 5 1/2 inches by  11 1/4 inches.

Score on the long side at 5 1/2 inches and  5  3/4 inches.

Using a square die  about half an inch smaller than the item you want to sit in the recess and cut an aperture in the front panel.

Measure and mark  1/4 inch  twice on each side of the aperture.  Draw  a frame  1/4 wide around the aperture. Joining up all marks.

With a rule and  a ball tool score over the pencil lines.  

Here's a quick diagram showing the sizes  I used for this  project.

Snip into all four corners on the diagonal from the cut corner to the drawn corner. see the photo below.

Fold all sides towards the inside of the card and burnish for nice crisp folds.

Make a box the same size as the aperture with 1/4 inch added to every side. 

Score at 1/4 inch on all four sides.

Snip the corners as in the photo below.

Glue the corner flaps so they sit inside the box.

Apply glue to the outside of the flaps on your card base.

Place the box over the flaps.

 Flip the whole thing over and push something like a pad of post it notes  under the edge of the card.   Use the side of the post pad  as a buffer,  push  the glued flap and the side of the box against  the pad  firmly . Using the pad makes it easy to adhere the two together.

The base is now complete.

 If you wish to add a liner to the  recess cut a piece of card of your choice and do exactly the same as you did for the box, but don't glue the corners. Instead of snipping the corners cut a small wedge out.

Before you glue the liner in make sure it fits  well. The liner may need a little adjustment.

Once you are happy with the fit you can fold down the liner sides add glue, then push them back in place. It's best to glue the sides with the tabs on first.

Now you can  fold the first two score lines you drew and fold the fold the card so it stands up and you can now add your 3D embellishments, this is idea for  more delicate 3D floral displays.

 I won't be adding anything to this card, in fact it's already in the bin.

Pampered Pets, the forgotten card.

It seems I forgot to post this Pampered Pets card last week when I posted the last batch.
 I made the collar using one of the new sliders from S.U.  and threaded through a strip of  black card. I added a few tiny gem stones along the collar.  Well,  it is a Pampered  Pet after all.

A nice anniversary card..... I think

This is a fairly quick and easy one to make.  It would have been quicker if I hadn't over inked my "craft" ink pad   (which Is a Slow drying ink) I had to wait for ages for the ink to dry, but it took so long I resorted to using the heat gun to finish it off.

This is a 6x4 inch card. I started by brushing ink in a  semi random way over the card stock. I brushed in a couple hills in the distance then  splattered some water over the card and waited for a about 30 seconds before blotting  off the excess water and the ink it lifted.

 I wanted the splatter marks to be a little brighter, so with an aqua painter  filled with bleach I added  tiny drops of bleach to each splatter and let it sit until the splatters where almost white then blotted off the excess.

  I stamped the silhouettes,  sponged  in the foreground and left it to dry.

  It was essential the ink was completely dry before I did the gold heating embossing.

 The  couple  are from the retired  stamps set Silhouette Scenes . The floral silhouette wild flowers  and willow are from Lavinia stamps.

 This is a long skinny card  at  3x7  inches.

 The stamps used on this are Pocket silhouettes, 

Silhouette scenes.

 and the over hanging willow stamp is from Lavinia stamps.

Pampered Pets...Dog

I've  used both dog stamps from the Pampered pets set from Stampin' up on this one. Coloured with Copic Markers and teamed up with the coordinating DSP.

The little butterflies come in this set too,  so just for fun I thought I'd  have one of them land on the dogs nose.

Pamper Pets , The cat....Again

I love this  cat but I am not sure if she's a  happy cat or if she's a smug one.
I printed off the sentiment using my P.C  I then stamped, coloured and die cut the  cat and stuck her on the panel and mounted it onto a second panel before adhering it to the base card.
 I would love to have stamped her directly on the base card,  but alcohol markers bleed through the card making the inside of the card very messy looking.

 For the card below I used a panel big enough to cover the whole of the base card. so I didn't have to do any layering. I should have stamped the cat directly onto the panel, but as I had a cat already coloured and cut out I stuck that on instead.

Pampered pets ...the Dog 4

I call this the dog tag card. The tag swings freely on this card and you can flip it over to reveal a second sentiment or a second image. I hadn't decided what to put on the back of this tag until this very minute.

I think I will add the rear view of the dog on the back of the tag  in a few mins.

  The pendant hanger I found in  a box of jewellery findings. I used a single hole punch to make the hole in the middle and the hole in the tag. I tightly  twisted    1/2 inch wide  strand of raffia  until it was so tightly twisted it looked like fine  twine. threaded it through the pendant hanger  and tied a knot,  I then threaded the ends through the hole in the card and taped and glued the ends to the back of the dsp. The  tape on it's own is not enough  to hold the tag in place for long. the raffia will eventually slide out from under the tape. That is why I added some glue to the ends too..... Belt and braces as they say.

Pampered Pets... The dog 3

Another card using the Pampered pets stamps and dsp.  This time I have included the bowl.

Instead of using red card stock, I have used sticky back red flock which I found floating round in my craft room.  This makes the card more tactile.

I just love this colour combo with this dog.

  

Pampered pets....the dog 2

I love this happy looking dog stamp. .He is one of the stamps in the pampered pets set. the background paper is from the coordinating DSP pack and I have teamed it up with  some real red card stock. I coloured the dog with  cool grey range of  Copic markers.  

Pampered Pets...the dog.

This card was a lash up from the beginning. I had every intention of using this base for the cat stamp. But when I put the cat on it looked lost on this is a 7x5 card. I tried putting several cats on and didn't like it. So I put the dog on instead.

Anyone familiar with this  DSP will know this sheet of DSP is cat orientated. But I have this theory that hardly anyone reads the background paper.  To test my theory, and to decide whether I would post this card on here,  I gave it to hubby for his input. (if anyone is going to read the background paper it will be him) .  Sure enough  he read the words out loud,  but he didn't pick up on the fact the words are cat related and I had put a dog with them. So If he didn't question it, I would leave it as is and post it anyway.

Pampered Pets..the cat

As soon as I saw the Pampered Pets stamp set, dies and dsp  I knew I just had to have them. I hadn't a clue what I was going to do with them or what sort of cards I would make with them. I have to say I haven't  worked a stamp set so hard since Cambridge Carols came out a couple of years ago.To make the card above. Using  my pc  I printed off the sentiment  and cut the card down to 3  3/4  of an inch by 5 1/2 inches.  I cut a piece of dsp and adhered it to the lower portion  and  added  an  1/8th of an inch strip of red card to finish the background.  I then stuck the background onto the red card base. I stamped, coloured and die cut the cat and stuck him on the card with foam  pads.  As a finishing touch, I  added a  small bow to the cats neck.

I decided not to use dsp on the next card , I  stamped a leafy border twice for a little extra interest, although most of the borders are covered by the cats panel.
If you are not familiar with the Pampered Pets stamp set,  I have to say that to create this image, I had to do  some mirror stamping to reverse the image as the cat stamp is a single image.  

To mirror stamp you need a silicone mat and a stamping platform.  You stamp the image onto the silicone mat , carefully place the  card on top of  the stamped image and close  the platform  and press gently. It's advisable to let the card stock sit for about 15  seconds to give the card enough time to soak up the ink

 I stamped off quite a few cats to colour and experiment with, while watching TV.  The tabby cat came out better than I expected.  I used Copic markers to colour all the cats.  

I used the DSP on this 6x6 card for some extra colour and interest.

I have to say,  I am not so keen on the DSP for cats. 

Gift Card Holders

Another gift card holder,  this time I've used the Unicorn head is from the leave a little sparkle stamp set from S.U.

I used  Bella and friends for the pink version of the gift card holder. The sentiment is from the Pampered stamp set.